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Discrimination and the Development & Maintenance of Prejudice

Introduction​

Understanding why prejudice and discrimination emerge and persist is one of social psychology's most important questions. If we can identify the roots of these phenomena, we have a better chance of eradicating them.

This unit examines:

  1. Discrimination — what it is, how it operates, and its social consequences
  2. Development of prejudice — the causal factors that give rise to prejudice
  3. Maintenance of prejudice — why prejudice persists once established
📄 Source PDF

MPC-004 Block-3/Unit-3.pdf — Pages 27–31 | MPC-004 Advanced Social Psychology

Learning Objectives​

After studying this section, you will be able to:

  • Define discrimination and distinguish it from prejudice
  • Explain Exchange Theory's account of discrimination
  • Identify and analyse structural, historical, situational, and psychodynamic causes of prejudice
  • Describe the role of authoritarian personality in prejudice
  • Explain how interaction patterns maintain prejudice

1. Understanding Discrimination​

Definition​

Discrimination is the differential treatment of individuals based on their membership in a particular social group. It is typically the overt behavioural expression of prejudice.

Key features of discrimination:

  • It involves action, not just attitude
  • It denies minority group members privileges/rights accorded to majority members
  • It can occur with or without accompanying prejudice
  • It maintains and reinforces social inequality

Example from IGNOU text: In Indian society, lower-caste people were historically denied access to wells used by upper castes, prohibited from sitting before upper-caste people, and subjected to numerous restrictions — not because of individual choice but because of their birth into a particular caste.

Discrimination Without Prejudice​

Importantly, discrimination can occur without personal prejudice:

Example: A business proprietor may refuse to serve minority group members not because they personally hate that group, but because they fear losing majority customers. The discrimination is driven by economic calculation rather than personal hostility.

This distinction has important implications:

  • Anti-discrimination laws can change behaviour even when they cannot change attitudes
  • Institutional discrimination can perpetuate without requiring individual prejudice
  • "Aversive racism" — people who reject prejudice but discriminate in ambiguous situations

Exchange Theory Explanation of Discrimination​

The Exchange Theory (Thibaut & Kelley) provides an economic analysis of discrimination:

Key insight: When group rewards are zero-sum (one group's gain is another's loss), discrimination becomes a rational strategy for the dominant group to maintain advantages. Minority group reactions depend on their comparison level relative to the dominant group.

Determinants of minority comparison level:

  • Past experiences of the group
  • Outcomes available in alternative relationships
  • Structural and cultural factors specific to that society

2. Development of Prejudice: Causal Factors​

Psychologists have identified several categories of factors that cause prejudice to develop:

2.1 Status and Power Structures​

The structure of intergroup relations in terms of power differentials can generate prejudice:

Mechanism: When one group holds another in a condition of subjugation (e.g., slavery), the subjugated group behaves in ways that confirm stereotypes — not because of inherent traits, but because the power structure forces that behaviour.

Classic example: Slaves appear "lazy and irresponsible" because:

  • They act upon masters' orders rather than showing initiative
  • They are given no opportunity to demonstrate responsibility
  • Their behaviour is controlled by the power structure, not their character

This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where the dominant group's beliefs are "confirmed" by behaviour that their own oppression produces.

🔗 Related concept: Wikipedia: Self-fulfilling prophecy

🇮🇳 Indian Caste Example

Dalits who historically performed "unclean" occupations (leather working, sweeping) were stereotyped as "impure" — ignoring that the power structure assigned them these roles, then used those roles to justify discrimination.

2.2 Historical Factors​

Prejudice develops from historical patterns of economic conflict and power distribution:

Historical mechanisms:

Historical PatternResulting Prejudice
Economic competition between groupsEthnic/national prejudice
Gender-based division of labourSex prejudice against women
Occupational roles assigned to ethnic groupsEthnic stereotypes tied to occupation
Colonial relationshipsRacial prejudice

Case Study: Anti-Jewish Prejudice (from IGNOU text):

  • The Christian Church prohibited Christians from lending money at interest
  • Jews were permitted to serve as moneylenders
  • Jews became prosperous bankers when this profession was highly profitable
  • The stereotype of Jews as "rich, grasping, and shrewd" emerged from this historical-occupational role
  • Competitive resentment then turned this occupational stereotype into prejudice

Indian example: Women have historically been subjected to atrocities, which they tolerated as "duty." This created and reinforced sex prejudice portraying women as weak, dependent, and fit only for certain roles.

🔗 Resources:

2.3 Situational Factors​

Several situational factors in the immediate environment lead to prejudice development:

Social Learning​

Children acquire prejudices through agents of socialisation:

  • Parents: Model prejudiced attitudes and behaviour
  • Schools: Curriculum may include biased content or teacher expectations
  • Peer groups: Social acceptance tied to conformity to group prejudices
  • Religious institutions: May promote "in-group superiority" narratives
  • Media: Stereotyped portrayals normalise prejudice

Childrearing practices: Authoritarian parenting (high control, low warmth) has been shown to produce more prejudiced children — a finding replicated across cultures.

Job Competition (Economic Threat)​

Economic competition is a powerful trigger for inter-group prejudice. When resources are scarce:

  • Outgroups are perceived as competitors threatening in-group economic security
  • Realistic Group Conflict Theory (Sherif, 1966): Actual competition over resources produces inter-group hostility
  • Economic threat perception can generate prejudice even without actual competition

Indian example from IGNOU text: The Marathi movement against North Indians in Mumbai illustrates economic-based prejudice:

  • North Indians work longer hours at cheaper wages
  • They gradually displaced local Marathi workers from traditional jobs
  • This created the belief that "North Indians are responsible for our plight"
  • Leading to prejudice and violence against North Indian migrants

🔗 Resources:

Conformity to Norms​

Once prejudice becomes normative within a group:

  1. Members expect each other to hold prejudiced views
  2. Expression of prejudice receives social approval
  3. Non-conformity (rejecting prejudice) receives social punishment
  4. Prejudice becomes a requirement for group membership

This creates a social maintenance mechanism where prejudice survives even if individual members privately reject it, because the social cost of non-conformity is too high.

Interaction Patterns​

Patterns of social interaction *maintain the conditions that produce prejudice:

  • Segregation prevents corrective intergroup contact
  • In-group interaction strengthens cultural distinctiveness
  • Economic interdependence within groups increases cohesion
  • Group cohesion increases pressure for conformity to prejudiced norms

3. Psychodynamic Factors in Prejudice​

Beyond social and structural factors, individual psychology plays a crucial role in predisposing people to prejudice.

3.1 Frustration-Aggression Theory (Scapegoating)​

Dollard et al.'s (1939) Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis explains prejudice through:

  1. Frustration arises when an obstacle blocks goal achievement
  2. Aggression is generated toward the source of frustration
  3. If the frustrating agent is too powerful to be attacked directly, aggression is displaced
  4. Displacement targets a weaker, safer target — the scapegoat

Classic research: During economic downturns, when people experience more frustration, rates of intergroup violence historically increase (Hovland & Sears, 1940 — though later research has complicated this finding).

Modern application: High-stress periods (economic recession, social disruption, pandemics) tend to increase scapegoating of minority groups.

🔗 Resources:

3.2 Authoritarian Personality​

Adorno et al.'s (1950) research on the authoritarian personality remains one of psychology's most influential — and most debated — theories of prejudice.

Key characteristics of authoritarian personality:

TraitDescription
Rigid thinkingBlack-and-white worldview, intolerance of ambiguity
Punitive tendencyStrong belief in punishment for rule-breaking
Power orientationValues people according to their power/status
In-group submissionSubmissive to authority figures above oneself
Out-group aggressionHostile and contemptuous toward those below
EthnocentrismBelief in the inherent superiority of one's own group

The F-Scale (Fascism Scale): Adorno et al. developed this measure to assess authoritarian tendencies. High scorers on the F-Scale showed higher prejudice toward ethnic minorities, women, and other marginalised groups.

Criticism: The concept has been criticised for:

  • Political bias (measured only "right-wing authoritarianism" initially)
  • Methodological limitations in original research
  • Altemeyer later developed more rigorous "Right-Wing Authoritarianism" (RWA) scale

Modern relevance: Altemeyer's (1981) RWA scale continues to be one of the strongest predictors of prejudiced attitudes across cultures.

🔗 Resources:

3.3 Personality Needs​

Various personality needs can support prejudice development:

Intolerance for Ambiguity​

  • Some individuals are deeply uncomfortable with uncertainty and complexity
  • They prefer clear, unambiguous categories: things are either "good" or "bad"
  • Prejudice reduces ambiguity by providing clear categorisations of people
  • Research consistently shows that intolerance for ambiguity predicts prejudice

Example: A person who is anxious about social interactions may categorise entire groups as "friendly" (in-group) or "hostile" (out-group), reducing the anxiety of evaluating each individual separately.

Need for Superior Status​

  • Some individuals need to feel superior to maintain self-esteem
  • Prejudice provides a ready-made inferior group to feel superior to
  • This explains why people with fragile self-esteem may show more prejudice
  • System Justification Theory (Jost et al., 2004): People are motivated to see the existing hierarchy as fair and legitimate

Need for Security​

  • Insecure individuals may use rejection of out-groups to strengthen in-group belonging
  • Terror Management Theory: Reminders of mortality increase in-group favoritism and out-group derogation
  • Belonging to a clearly defined group provides psychological security

🔗 Resources:

4. Integrated Model of Prejudice Development​

5. Recent Research on Discrimination (2020–2024)​

Algorithmic Discrimination​

Recent research documents how AI systems can perpetuate and amplify discrimination. Hiring algorithms trained on historical data reproduce existing biases. Facial recognition systems show higher error rates for darker-skinned individuals (Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018; updated analyses 2021-2022).

Intersectional Discrimination​

Studies show that individuals with multiple minority identities (e.g., Black women) face unique forms of discrimination not captured by adding racial + gender discrimination separately. This intersectional discrimination has been documented in hiring, healthcare, and legal contexts.

COVID-19 as a Natural Experiment​

The pandemic provided a test of frustration-aggression theory: research showed increased hate crimes against Asian Americans correlated with COVID-19 case surges — consistent with scapegoating predictions (Tessler et al., 2020; Zhang & Larimer, 2021).

🔗 Recent Research:

6. Educational Resources​

🧪 Self-Assessment Questions​

  1. What is discrimination? How does it differ from prejudice?
  2. According to Exchange Theory, when does discrimination arise between groups?
  3. What is scapegoating? Give one historical example.
  4. Name three situational factors that contribute to the development of prejudice.

🧠 Memory Aids​

"SHIPS" for Development of Prejudice​

  • S — Status and Power structures (structural inequality creates prejudice)
  • H — Historical factors (past conflicts, economic competition)
  • I — Interaction patterns (segregation maintains prejudice)
  • P — Psychodynamic factors (frustration, authoritarian personality)
  • S — Situational factors (social learning, job competition, norms)

Frustration-Aggression Sequence​

Goal → Block → Frustration → Aggression → Displacement → Scapegoat

"When you can't hit the boss, you kick the dog."

Authoritarian Personality Features: "ROPES"​

  • Rigid thinking (black and white)
  • Obedience to authority (submissive to power above)
  • Punitive tendency (harsh punishment for deviance)
  • Ethnocentrism (in-group superiority)
  • Status consciousness (values people by power)

📚 Further Reading​

Previous: Characteristics and Types of Prejudice ←
Next: Manifestation & Methods of Reducing Prejudice →